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Friday, April 03, 2009
ALL RIGHT!
ALL RIGHT!! I accomplished a personal best at the market this week-I spent $97 and came home with over $300 worth of food. I know I’ve written about my penchant for couponing before, but I think I did pretty darn good here and I felt like “crowing” about it!
My total included quite a bit of protein products too. Yessiree, I was able to bring home: 3 whole Zacky Farms chickens, 4 pounds of sirloin pork chops, 4 pounds of extra lean ground beef (okay, I’m not a fan of beef, but for our budget’s sake, I went for it!), 1-4 pound boneless beef chuck roast (still remembering our budget) and 1 pound of turkey kielbasa.
Not bad if I do say so myself! I also brought home 3 free boxes of the Kashi cereal I like, 1 box of Fiber One, 1 box of Cinnamon Life and another free box of generic instant oatmeal.
There were a lot more great deals, but these were some of the highlights. And I also received a “bonus” gas card of $6.
Now how could my ever-lovin’ complain about this? I also had a $10 coupon at Kohl’s, which I used to buy that same aforementioned gentleman new summer pajamas and v-neck tee shirts. Since we both already “gave” each other the cruise for our 28th anniversary-this was just some “icing” on the celebratory cake.
Yes, my total savings for this necessary splurge in the grocery and clothing store came to well over $230.
In today’s rather poor economic times, this savings seems to be more than a bit significant. I told my mom, who said “this is why I had you do our shopping as soon as you got your driver’s license, even at 16 you knew how to stretch a dollar”
True, I’ve always been frugal. I’d rather go without than overspend on something. I’ll research what I want and what it should cost me and promise myself that I won’t break my own word to myself.
The best part-my husband is the same way. And no, we don’t spend more on gas and time than any item is worth! We comb the Sunday ads, the internet, etc…
The only time we broke that rule was on our house 20 years ago. Honestly, when we’re having to re-do something around here, we still curse ourselves about having spent the money at the top of the real estate boom in 1988. But hey, we sold our house at the top of that same market, had 2 little kids and we moved in with my parents until the house was ready.
(And yet, saying that, we almost own our home outright and have tripled our money in equity-even after this last year.)
Trust me when I say that no matter how wonderful my parents are, we really needed to move into our own place: FAST!
And now, since I saved so much on all this food and extras for the house, I’m off to go use the rest of a free gift card from Starbucks on a cup of coffee and savor my ingenuity.
My total included quite a bit of protein products too. Yessiree, I was able to bring home: 3 whole Zacky Farms chickens, 4 pounds of sirloin pork chops, 4 pounds of extra lean ground beef (okay, I’m not a fan of beef, but for our budget’s sake, I went for it!), 1-4 pound boneless beef chuck roast (still remembering our budget) and 1 pound of turkey kielbasa.
Not bad if I do say so myself! I also brought home 3 free boxes of the Kashi cereal I like, 1 box of Fiber One, 1 box of Cinnamon Life and another free box of generic instant oatmeal.
There were a lot more great deals, but these were some of the highlights. And I also received a “bonus” gas card of $6.
Now how could my ever-lovin’ complain about this? I also had a $10 coupon at Kohl’s, which I used to buy that same aforementioned gentleman new summer pajamas and v-neck tee shirts. Since we both already “gave” each other the cruise for our 28th anniversary-this was just some “icing” on the celebratory cake.
Yes, my total savings for this necessary splurge in the grocery and clothing store came to well over $230.
In today’s rather poor economic times, this savings seems to be more than a bit significant. I told my mom, who said “this is why I had you do our shopping as soon as you got your driver’s license, even at 16 you knew how to stretch a dollar”
True, I’ve always been frugal. I’d rather go without than overspend on something. I’ll research what I want and what it should cost me and promise myself that I won’t break my own word to myself.
The best part-my husband is the same way. And no, we don’t spend more on gas and time than any item is worth! We comb the Sunday ads, the internet, etc…
The only time we broke that rule was on our house 20 years ago. Honestly, when we’re having to re-do something around here, we still curse ourselves about having spent the money at the top of the real estate boom in 1988. But hey, we sold our house at the top of that same market, had 2 little kids and we moved in with my parents until the house was ready.
(And yet, saying that, we almost own our home outright and have tripled our money in equity-even after this last year.)
Trust me when I say that no matter how wonderful my parents are, we really needed to move into our own place: FAST!
And now, since I saved so much on all this food and extras for the house, I’m off to go use the rest of a free gift card from Starbucks on a cup of coffee and savor my ingenuity.
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Can't top that. I had a $2 off coupon for Bob Evan's Restaurant to help pay for our breakfast this morning. We've tried big-time couponing in the past, but either have bought too much stuff we didn't need, or spent too much money anyway. My hat's off to people like yourself who can make it work. Some day we may try again.
one of the main things I've learned is not to buy stuff you normally wouldn't buy, in amounts you can't possibly use. Then, I compare prices on generic items.
Way to go Carine. Have you ever thought of teaching a class to us less successful savers?☺ I do pretty good, but my SO just wants to get in and get out as fast as possible. I have gotten him to use more coupons, but I know we could do much better. And now that his job ends in three weeks it is more important than ever.
Ruthie,
I actually did hold a class years ago! In fact I did it twice-once when I taught a HS lifestyle class and then again when I ran my pre-school/daycare.
I actually did hold a class years ago! In fact I did it twice-once when I taught a HS lifestyle class and then again when I ran my pre-school/daycare.
the best advice-never buy stuff just b/c you have a coupon! check out generic and other brands. Be flexible. also, now w/ places like Big Lots and 99cents-you need to be careful-they sound like "buys", but aren't. I do find though that Big Lots has the cheapest cereals (and walmart) and not many people know that they accept coupons. You have to work all the angles!
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